Identifikace spotřebitelského chování na trhu videoher

Abstract

The diploma thesis deals with consumer behaviour in online environment. Dynamic growth of the video game market and associated sectors incentivizes increased effort of marketers to understand a player, his habits, motives, his attitude towards individual game factors – especially those that directly affect profit. Companies focused on development of video games create profit through several various methods. One of those more complex is sale of additional content in form of virtual goods – one that the player does not need, but might deepen and enrich his user experience based on subjective perception. This type of monetization is the core of the thesis. In its first part, basics of consumer behaviour are laid out with emphasis on video game environment and virtual goods. Subsequently, Riot Games, developer and publisher of League of Legends, most popular video game worldwide, is introduced to the reader. Analytical part of the thesis contains evaluation of the research, which was carried out on data obtained by surveying players of the aforementioned game. The results reveal stable patterns in users‘ consumer behaviour, but also bring interesting and surprising findings and show that some rooted stigmas are no longer valid due to changes in the social and cultural background of video gaming.